Islam is BAD!!!
yosi
NYC Posts: 3,069
Not really...just wanted to get some attention. Anyways...I just got through reading all the locked "Muslims are..." threads, and it got me thinking that it seems that there is a false idea floating around that it is somehow bigoted to speak badly of religions. So, for example, if I were to say (and this is purely an example, not my actual opinion) that Islam is a terrible religion that prompts people to violence, I'm fairly certain that someone would accuse me of being a bigot. The problem, as I see it, is that religions are really nothing more than ideologies, and as such should in no way be immune to criticism. Hell, the Enlightenment was practically built on tearing Christianity a new one. Obviously people often use religious labels to talk about groups of people rather than ideas, but even then it seems to me that the underlying issue is often a criticism of a certain set of ideas (in the case of the aforementioned locked thread, perhaps, how ideas inherent in Islam could prompt, or intensify, violence towards other religious groups).
Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is that race and religion are really not the same thing at all, and that stereotypes about religious groups (while often uninformed) are not in themselves racist, and may, in fact, stem from a legitimate intellectual criticism (of the religion in question).
Anyways, I guess what I'm trying to say is that race and religion are really not the same thing at all, and that stereotypes about religious groups (while often uninformed) are not in themselves racist, and may, in fact, stem from a legitimate intellectual criticism (of the religion in question).
you couldn't swing if you were hangin' from a palm tree in a hurricane
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having said that i agree ... i think some of the discussion in those locked threads were pretty good and maybe the trigger was pulled a bit too quick imo ...
for sure the stereotypes and preconceived biases ruin the discourse but it's like that for so many other topics ...
To have an intellectual debate on these ideologies would mean you would have to know something about it to begin with but I don't think a lot of people here do. I guess actually reading the Qu'ran yourself would be a good start (not you personally, broadly speaking)
I think you also have to look at the manner and tone in which these threads were posted.
i don't really have a point
How can you be a christian and not read the bible?
Christianity is following the teachings of Christ is it not?
ya get the jist of it.
Yes, tone matters, but I would say that even if someone is employing an offensive tone it would be better to try to draw that person into a real discussion of ideas rather than simply labeling him/her a bigot. It might turn out to be interesting, and it may even cause people to become better informed.
I know lots of Muslims who have never read the Quran, which makes them pretty much exactly like those Jews and Christians you mentioned.
Speaking as a liberal, I have noticed the same thing, and not only when it comes to religion (people furious about American action x, but working very hard to defend virtually the same action perpetrated by (insert third-world country here)). There seems to be some sort of ultra-liberal knee-jerk reaction where you scorn what is familiar to you and praise some idealized fantasy of the third world. Which annoys the shit out of me.